Raquel Sedano, leader of the Yanesha community of Loma Linda, located in the Pasco region, is spearheading an initiative to protect a crucial but often overlooked species: Melipona bees, known to be stingless bees.
Bees may be small, but their impact is monumental. Their pollination powers nourish entire food systems and ecosystems. More than 75 percent of the world's flowering plants and one-third of all crops depend on bees and other pollinators to reproduce. But extreme heat driven by climate change is further disrupting bee colonies and their foraging patterns.
For generations, indigenous communities such as the Yanesha have relied on Melipona bees for their medicinal honey to combat coughs and other illnesses.
However, Raquel has also witnessed firsthand the threat Melipona bees face. "Through a training workshop, they taught us about their importance. I was surprised to learn about all that this little bee did in my community and that we had not valued, we even scared them away by flooding the nests with water. Now I teach what I have learned”.
With the support of Conservation International's Amazon Indigenous Women's Program, she is leading a project of her own where she is strengthening the conservation and breeding of stingless bees. Raquel works with 17 people from the Yanesha community of Loma Linda, a community within the Yanesha Communal Reserve, installing so far 100 beehives of native bees in the field.
As the project progresses, Raquel and her colleagues look to the future with hope, imagining a meliponarium of their own and with it, the opportunity to sell honey and its derivatives, contribute to the sustainability of the native bees, as we as to food security and their own economy.
Amazon Indigenous Women's Program
The Amazon Indigenous Women's Program supports initiatives like Raquel's, enabling women not only to preserve traditional knowledge, but also to improve their skills to lead conservation efforts in their territories.
"I have learned a lot through the program. They have shown us that as women we have a lot to do and we can undertake what we want. The Meeting of Indigenous Women of the Amazon has allowed me to get to know other sisters from other ethnic groups and how they undertake their work," concludes Raquel.
"I am the first woman to assume the leadership of my community," Raquel proudly shares. "Most of the men said that I would not make it to a year in office, but throughout this time I have had the support of my sisters who have seen in my life story, a strong and resilient woman. I want to continue demonstrating to my community that with determination everything can be achieved."